Evan Dunfee, Ethan Katzberg set Canadian records on Day 1 of athletics worlds
Evan Dunfee set a Canadian record to open his sixth World Athletics Championships and teammate Ethan Katzberg, making his debut at the event, followed suit about one hour later Saturday in Budapest, Hungary.
Following a two-hour delay due to thunderstorms, Dunfee covered the men's 20-kilometre race walk in one hour 18 minutes three seconds for fourth place. Inaki Gomez held the previous national mark of 1:19:20 since 2016.
Dunfee, a 32-year-old from Richmond, B.C., finished 16 seconds shy of tying Caio Bonfim for a bronze medal, with the Brazilian achieving a national mark of 1:17:47.
Álvaro Martín of Spain won the race in a season world-leading 1:17:32, followed by Perseus Karlström in a Swedish record time of 1:17:39.
Dunfee entered Saturday ranked 22nd in the world in the event. His previous best finish at worlds over 20 km was a 12th-place finish (1:21:48) in 2015 in Beijing. He won bronze in the 50 km race in Doha, Qatar in 2019 and was sixth last year in Eugene, Ore., clocking 2:25:02.
Evan Dunfee kicks off <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Budapest2023?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Budapest2023</a> with a new
